The present invention relates to a flexible plum flower mini ring which is to be used in packed mass transfer equipment.
The packed column is an important class of mass transfer equipment which is widely used for distillation, absorption and extraction in the fields of chemical, petrochemical, pharmaceutical industry, environmental control and etc. The structure and performance of the packing have a key impact on the technical and economic performance of the separation processes, which are essential in many industrial processes. Therefore, systematic research on the structure and characteristics of packings have been carried out all over the world for many years. A variety of packings have been developed which can be divided into two categories--random packing and structured packing. Random packing is more suitable for high and normal pressure distillation and solvent extraction while structured packing is more suitable for vacuum distillation. Random packing is easy to manufacture and install and is relatively low cost. Therefore, it has a wide range of uses. The present invention belongs to the random packing category.
There are many kinds of random packings, such as Raching Ring, Pall Ring, Cascade Ring, Intalox Saddle and others. Among these, the Cascade Ring and the Inner Arc Stripe Mini Ring (SMR) which have low height/diameter ratio have distinctive characteristics.
The structure of the known Cascade Ring is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 of the attached drawing. It is shown from the figures that 1 is the metal piece used to make the packing; 2 is the tongue-shaped strip; 3 is the opening in the ring wall and 4 is the awl flange. The height/diameter ratio of the packing is 0.5 which is only half that of the known Pall Ring. Because of this aspect ratio, when this packing is installed in a tower it tends to orient in a more structured way such that its inner surface could be more efficient. All these features, therefore, decrease its pressure drop and increase the mass transfer efficiency. However, its height/diameter ratio can be decreased further, its inner structure could be improved, and its structure demands a thick sheet of material which is expensive.
The known SMR construction is described in Chinese Invention Patent (ZL 89109152.1). FIG. 3 is its front view and FIG. 4 is its top view. It is shown from the figures that the packing has the following characteristics:
1. The special designed inner stripes either improve the inner flow paths or increase the strength of the packing. There is no flange for the packing which might cause the coalescence of drop swarm or coking. PA1 2. The low height/diameter ratio of 0.3 ensures better ordering in random packed columns. Therefore, this feature can decrease the pressure drop, control the non-ideal flow of two phases and then increase the capacity and mass transfer efficiency of the packing. PA1 3. The packing is easy to manufacture and can be made from many kinds of materials for a variety of demands.
Though this new packing has excellent performance, it still could be improved a step further. For example, the ring shape of the packing limits the special area, the inner flow channel could be divided further and the firm structure needs thick sheets and consumes more material too.